I mean it must be obvious Greece are a better team than us.
Having one or two good players surrounded by numerous poor players is not going to cut it
The New Official Republic of Ireland Football Thread
- Thread starter moses
- Start date
I mean it must be obvious Greece are a better team than us.
Having one or two good players surrounded by numerous poor players is not going to cut it
The armchair COYBIG brigade, many of who are in the media, say different.
The problems in Irish football run very deep.
Yeah, this is fair. Although the shades of grey make it basically impossible to work out whether he really is out of his depth at this level, or if the tools at his disposal are just too poor to turn things round no matter what he does. Especially when both could be true at once!
Just as well the people in charge of hiring and firing Irish managers are ruthless, fiercely clever and superb at their job. Oh wait…
Ireland were poor tonight but thought Greece were very good. Looked a better side than almost all we faced in League B in the Nations League.
Fact is it was a group of death and a half we were given. Greece barely lose at home to anyone, never mind an average Ireland team.
Fact is it was a group of death and a half we were given. Greece barely lose at home to anyone, never mind an average Ireland team.
I don't think Kenny is it
We are shite.
Just checked and they’re unbeaten at home in 2023.
Remember when we were hard to beat at home?
Who's that?
I don't really care, Pogue. I've defended him because you could see progression, bravery, someone who had the courage of their convictions. Where was all of that tonight? A good performance with the same result would still have him.in danger but now we've neither result nor performance. He can't expect infinite patience when that's what he's serving up 3 years in.
Our 9 wins:
Competitive:
Azerbaijan
Luxembourg
Scotland
Armenia
Friendlies:
Malta
Latvia
Lithuania
Qatar
Andorra
Yeah it is all a bit grim. The most frustrating thing is how we can look so good in games where we’re fully expected to lose yet so dire in matches where we might be expected to get a result. Makes me worry about our mentality. And that has to come from the top. He deserves credit for getting the team to play ball on their good days that is a big step forward but the good days are too infrequent.
Plenty of countries with similar quality players are doing better.
Kenny was built up as a progressive coach that would be good for this group of players especially the younger ones but it's not working out.
If one was seeing consistent performances or patterns of play you could justify sticking with Kenny but that's not the case.
Last edited:
O'Neill beat Austria and Wales away in the WC18 qualifiers, they must have been seeded as high as Greece at least? Greece are only the 4th seeds in this group.
I'm not saying the Trappatoni and O'Neill eras were golden by any means, but their teams could routinely go away from home to group rivals and pick up at least a draw, no matter how shit they played.
Having said that, there's been a marked decline in the standard of the national squad even in the last 10-15 years.
Tells you everything that
It’s on days like these that you’d really miss @Decotron
Lads, it’s Ireland!
Apparently Cullen, the midfield lynchpin, had a 57% pass completion last night. I don’t even…
I like Cullen. He’s a good player. The right type of player. But you don’t really want him to be comfortably your best midfielder. Knight and Molumby have found the step up too much, to be perfectly honest.
Listening to Second Captains?
The abuse for Kenny is interesting. Irish people seem to think they should be winning every game. The poor players are horrendous but it’s not their fault. Kenny can’t make world class from ordinary.
I don't believe Kenny is good enough but I can't blame him with the team he has got.
We have too many players who all very much the same and while they try hard enough they are not creative enough to threaten opponents.
Some of our players may be in the premiership but they only work there because they work well with better more creative players around them
Who do we have that can thread dangerous through balls through the opponents defence? Nobody absolutely nobody.
Our best players are the keeper, a Centre back and a forward the three of which are very young and need time to develop as well.
The only thing we can really do is work hard and hope we get a decent cross or set piece so we can threaten.
If we got rid of Kenny there is not a manger who would come on that could change that.
Chances are we would get someone who would decide to go back to just hoofing the ball up in the air and playing puke football which I've watched for too many years to want to go back too.
We have too many players who all very much the same and while they try hard enough they are not creative enough to threaten opponents.
Some of our players may be in the premiership but they only work there because they work well with better more creative players around them
Who do we have that can thread dangerous through balls through the opponents defence? Nobody absolutely nobody.
Our best players are the keeper, a Centre back and a forward the three of which are very young and need time to develop as well.
The only thing we can really do is work hard and hope we get a decent cross or set piece so we can threaten.
If we got rid of Kenny there is not a manger who would come on that could change that.
Chances are we would get someone who would decide to go back to just hoofing the ball up in the air and playing puke football which I've watched for too many years to want to go back too.
Surely we’ll be able to beat Gibraltar tonight? Surely?
We'd really want to be beating them well. If we've any hope of getting a play-off place we'll want a better goal difference than Greece.
I thought they don't count the gd against the lowest ranked teams.
Hmmm I looked it up and on wiki it mentions something about results against the 6th place team are discarded but our group only has 5 teams so I'm really not sure.
Never miss an episode. Best sports podcast around.
Ah that must be it.
Should really be hammering these.
But it'll probable be 1-0 with a goal off a penalty or some other set piece.
Absolutely. It's great.
Either way we need to be hammering them, even for morale, but yeah it's by no means a certainty.
I've had a few WhatsApp messages saying he's getting sacked tomorrow. Unsure how reliable.
We might get a win tonight yeowwww.
Yeah I think at this point it actually might be best. I want him to succeed for actually having the nerve to try and play football but that's probably the wing idea with the players we have.
Listening to Liam Brady I have to agree with him when he says this current squad is the worst group of players any Irish magnet has had in his lifetime.
Against my better judgement we might actually be better off just hoofing the ball upfield as at least it makes our crap midfield redundant
I find it hard to believe, unless they’ve become way more proactive than we’re used to. Finding someone who is better and willing to work within the straitened existence of the FAI will be tricky. I don’t see them doing anything until this campaign is over.
Yeah at this point I'd give him the campaign and review things afterwards. Who are the likely replacements?
It's hard to know what the balance is. But we know the players aren't good enough and we know Kenny certainly isn't. Obviously there deep issues that goes many years back with the FAI. There are some on here who are saying Kenny is completely blameless. That's ridiculous, I read he had a less than 20% win rate. That's genuinely embarrassing.
I don't know about Obafemi's fitness if he was fit, he had to start. He's the only bit of pace we have (minus Obafemi). Our play was so static. Ferguson was getting no service, the midfield had no options. I don't understand this argument that were better to watch. Our performance against France was blown out of proportion, we were OK. Just simply don't score enough.
For me it's time to move on but I'm not going to pretend that finding a new manager will be easy.
I don't know about Obafemi's fitness if he was fit, he had to start. He's the only bit of pace we have (minus Obafemi). Our play was so static. Ferguson was getting no service, the midfield had no options. I don't understand this argument that were better to watch. Our performance against France was blown out of proportion, we were OK. Just simply don't score enough.
For me it's time to move on but I'm not going to pretend that finding a new manager will be easy.
Lee Carsley
Michael O'Neill
Chris Hughton
Kieran McKenna
Damien Duff
Giovanni Trapattoni
Michael O'Leary
Bertie Aherne
Dustin the Turkey
Team is crying out for a creative player in midfield and our best isn't in the squad despite displaying his worth week in week out at Shamrock Rovers.
It wasn’t a lack of creativity in midfield that was the problem against Greece.
I love the way list starts off reasonable and gets more and more unhinged with each new entry
Game of opinions and all that but I think we know all we need do about Jack Byrne. The right type of player, but he’s not good enough to influence games, even at this relatively low level.